#19 Bears Nail Down #2 Northern Seed With Sudden-Death Win at Harvard, 8-7

Oct. 25, 2007

Cambridge, MA - Brown freshman Corey Schwartz (Los Angeles, CA) scored the biggest goal of his young career on Thursday night, tossing home the game-winning goal off an assist from junior Hank Weintraub (Los Angeles, CA) as the #19 Brown water polo team (15-8, 6-1 CWPA North) topped Harvard (11-13, 5-2), 8-7 in sudden-death overtime.

The Bears held a 5-0 halftime lead, but the Crimson outscored them 7-2 in the second half to force overtime. After two scoreless overtime periods, the game went to sudden death. Harvard won the sprint to gain possession, but a Brown steal led to junior Mike Gartner (San Diego, CA) drawing an ejection to put his team on a power play. With the man advantage, Weintraub found fellow Harvard-Westlake School alum Schwartz for the game-winner.

"Harvard is a good team and I knew they would make a run at us," said Head Coach Felix Mercado. "I wasn't happy we let them back in the game, but this rivalry is huge and it always seems to end dramatically."

The win came despite the Bears being without the services of standout sophomore goalkeeper Kent Holland (Orinda, CA), who was unable to play. Freshman Brandon Yoshimura (Haverford, PA) took his place in the cage, performing admirably and making five saves while his team played fantastic defense in front of him.

"We exerted a lot of energy on the defensive end to force Harvard into awkward shooting situations," Mercado said. "Yoshimura made some key saves to help the effort."

Gartner led the Bears with three goals, with senior Gerrit Adams (Winnetka, IL) and freshman Gordon Hood (Carlsbad, CA) tossing in two apiece. Weintraub's assist on Schwartz's goal was his fourth of the evening.

With the win, Brown clinched the number two seed in next weekend's Northern Division Championship at MIT, while Harvard will settle for third. The Bears will open the tournament against seventh seed Queens College, who they defeated 18-7 earlier this season. The winner of that contest will play the winner of the Harvard-Fordham contest.

But first, the Bears will play their final regular season game, as they take on Mercyhurst (11-5) on Friday at Wheaton College. The game, which will be Senior Night for Adams and co-captain Alex Robb (Winnetka, IL), will be at 8:30 p.m.

#19 Brown 4 1 1 1 0 0 1 - 8
Harvard 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 - 7
Goals: Gartner 3, Adams 2, Hood 2, Schwartz
Saves: Yoshimura 5